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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I gotta let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
Welcome to Bad Habit News, your source for animal news, and specifically, their bad habits.
I'm Norman Newman.
Tonight's top story, a 7,000-pound African elephant has escaped from the local zoo.
What in the... Joining us now with more information is our newly reinstated... What?
Oh, no.
Really?
Spy witness reporter, Dennis.
Dennis?!
!
Hey, Norman.
Remember me?
It's Dennis from the horse poop panda story.
Uh, yes.
Dennis, can you give us more information about this escaped elephant?
Absolutely, Norman.
This elephant escaped from a local zoo.
Yes, I said that already.
The zoo part was in the headline.
Yeah, I know.
I just didn't like your delivery.
I can't work like this.
Norman, that's okay.
You can leave and I'll take the lead anchor spot.
I mean, we don't need two lead anchors.
An escaped elephant.
I'd better run over and warn Mindy.
How's that, Evie?
Can I get you some more tea?
Wow.
I must say, the precision in which you pick up that teacup with your trunk without breaking it is very impressive.
And you're able to drink with your trunk, too?
Lucky.
Ooh, too hot?
Sorry.
Here, let me just help you clean that up there.
So Abby, when we're finished here, I was hoping that maybe you could help me with my latest invention.
And not to fangirl, but it's much based on your trunk.
Yeah, I just read a whole study about it in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Looks like you've been holding a sneaky secret about that trunk of yours, and a researcher by the name of Andrew Schultz has uncovered it.
Mindy?
Mindy, are you there?
Oh, that's Guy Raz.
Okay um, just stay back here and try not to knock down any walls or break anything while I go answer the door.
Be right back.
Mindy, is everything okay in there?
Opening the door?
Mindy?
Garazi!
Everything okay in here?
I heard some loud noises from outside and... Oh, yeah!
Everything's great!
Couldn't be better!
Thanks for stopping by!
Gotta run!
Okay, bye!
Bye!
Well, I was just coming over here to tell you that there was a story on the news about a 7000-pound African elephant that escaped from the local zoo, and Well, must have been a pretty bad zoo.
Now I'm just going to close this.
I just can't imagine how an animal that large would be able to hide in plain sight.
You know, I mean, as far as I know, there haven't been any sightings and... Uh, Mindy?
Yeah well, maybe you should check with Dennis local snoop.
Well, i would, but he's actually on the local news right now.
Actually guy, technically i was on the local news right now dennis, but they said i didn't have enough of a snoop scoop so i need one of you to do something scoopy for me to snoopy.
Um hello, are you listening to me?
Don't just stand there, Do something I can blab about on the local animal news.
My career as a spy witness is in jeopardy.
What was that?
Oh, yes.
Mindy, I knew I could count on you.
So, what do you got in there?
Is it giant robots?
No, wait.
Is it space aliens?
No, wait.
Is it a unicorn petting zoo?
No news here.
Just another normal day of me being boring in my gingerbread mansion.
Mindy!
Well, I think we're all out of stuff to talk about.
Fellas, have a nice night now, you hear?
Now, let me just close the door here.
Uh-oh.
Oh, I'd recognize that sound anywhere.
Mindy, did you get a dog?
Oh.
I don't think that's a dog, Dennis.
Sure it is.
Look, you can see it right there behind Mindy.
Oh.
Big floppy ears, little waggy tail, giant stompy feet.
Oh, well, I don't care to address the elephant in the room here, Mindy.
No.
Oh, it's not a dog.
It's just an elephant.
Just your ordinary, everyday, garden variety elephant.
What?
Put me down.
Put. that's gone missing from the local zoo?
Yes, of course that's not the missing elephant, Guy Raz.
Obviously, she's right here.
Holding Dennis.
See?
Not missing.
Mindy!
Mindy, please!
Grab my phone out of my pocket and take a picture.
I have to show Mother.
Oh, sure.
Let me just reach here.
Okay, let me just see here.
I think I got it.
Thank you.
Mindy!
Do you have an escaped elephant in your gingerbread mansion?
Yeah.
Also, how do you have an escaped elephant in your gingerbread mansion?
Okay, everyone calm down.
As usual, I've got everything out of control.
Well, that part is obvious.
Oh, here's the deal.
I just read this new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
You know, Georgia Tech.
Yeah?
And the study was all about... elephant trunks.
Okay, but that still doesn't explain why you have an escaped elephant inside of your gingerbread mansion, Mindy.
Hey, uh, could someone help me get down?
This elephant's trunk is starting to feel a little aggressive.
Oh, that's because her trunk is actually all muscle, Dennis.
Oh, I see.
Ow!
That's right, Dennis.
Elephant trunks are incredibly strong.
They've been known to uproot trees.
You don't say.
Put me down, elephant.
I'm not a stress ball.
Come on now, Evie.
Let go of Dennis.
Mindy, we have got to get this elephant back to the zoo the whole time. is looking for her.
That gives me a fantastic idea for a snoop scoop.
And what if we, uh, no, wait, no, never mind.
I lost it.
Yeah, if only you could find a story about someone harboring a giant elephant in their gingerbread mansion.
Yeah, if only.
Hey, Roz, I promise to get this elephant back to the zoo.
Great.
Let's go.
As soon as I finish up a little science project with it.
Science?
I'd like everyone to please follow me out back to the laboratory of bad ideas.
We can cut through the house so no one in the neighborhood sees Evie.
Come on.
Ah, Mindy, are you aware that your gingerbread walls are about to collapse?
Yeah, hurry up so we can get out before they do.
Opening the back door.
Oh, no!
Mindy, your gingerbread mansion collapsed!
It's nothing but sugar-coated rubble!
Oh, don't worry, Guy Raz.
You'll help me rebuild it.
Uh, what?
And here we are at the Laboratory of Bad Ideas.
Come inside and I'll show you the new invention I've been working on.
Uh, Mindy, what about the elephant?
What elephant?
Oh, right.
I guess I'm going to need your help squeezing her through the door.
So let me see here.
How about you all come around and get behind her.
And when I say three, we're all going to push from behind.
Okay?
No.
One, two.
Abby.
Abby, let's try this again.
One two three, there we go.
Uh dennis, you want to grab the door behind you, sure thing.
So remember how.
Mention that there was a study out of the Georgia Institute of Technology about elephant trunks.
Yes.
Well, as soon as I read it, I hatched an idea for a new invention.
An invention based on the biomechanics of the elephant trunk.
Ah, biomechanics.
The mechanical ways that living organisms like animals work.
You know, like how fish swim or birds Birds fly or humans walk.
Exactly, Guy Raz.
And so obviously I had to see the biomechanics of an elephant trunk for myself.
So that's why we're crammed into a tiny laboratory with a 7,000 pound African elephant?
Why couldn't you have just visited her at the zoo?
Oh, I'm not allowed back at the zoo, Guy Raz.
Not after that time I tried to clean their aquariums with a vacuum cleaner.
The what?
That was a great news day.
Anyhoo, let's take a look at her trunk.
Abby?
May I?
Uh... Guy Raz, I want you to stick your face right under the tip of her trunk here.
And with these ultrasonic vision magnifying goggles, tell me what you see.
Sure, thanks.
Let me just see here...
Well, I see a couple of nostrils, sort of like the ones we have on our noses.
Yeah.
And those nostrils lead to nasal passages or tunnels that go all the way up her trunk.
Interesting.
In fact, they act as kind of a snorkel for when she's traipsing around in deep water.
I love traipsing!
She also uses it for a bunch of other things like breathing drinking, Picking up Dennis and swinging him around.
Mindy!
No!
Her trunk is like a Swiss Army knife.
You know, the kind that you can use as a screwdriver and a bottle opener and scissors.
Yeah, exactly like that.
Only not at all in that it doesn't do any of those things and has no sharp edges.
Ew.
Oh, look, Mindy.
It looks like she's also got some water stored in there.
Or is that?
Uh.
Peppermint tea?
Isn't that bonker balls, Kairos?
She was storing that tea in there the whole time.
Did I mention that she can also use her trunk to store water, spray it out, blow air and bellow so loud it could be heard for miles.
Anyway, as you mentioned earlier, Mindy, it seems as if her trunk is made entirely out of muscle.
With these X-ray goggles, I couldn't see any bones or joints in the entire trunk.
Yep, all muscle on the inside.
But on the outside, all of those folds and wrinkles that you see helped make her trunk even stronger and more flexible, while allowing it to get longer or shorter.
Wow, is there anything this trunk can't do?
Can she hear with it and use it to snoop on the neighbors?
Well, as far as we know, Dennis, it cannot snoop.
But thanks to this new research study, we now know that it can do something else, something that we've only ever known fish to do.
Oh, yeah?
What's that?
Swim?
What?
Well, you said it was something fish do.
Fish swim.
Dennis, please be quiet.
Chew those chips with your mouth closed.
Mouth closed?
Guy, that's impossible.
Ah, hey!
Did you see that, Mindy?
Evie just sucked the chips right out of my hand.
That's it.
That's what?
That's the new discovery.
Evie's trunk also comes with super suction power.
Ah, hey, my snack!
That's a bad Emmy!
This suction feature was discovered by a mechanical engineering doctoral student at Georgia Tech named Andrew Schultz.
Here, take a look at the study.
Is this a scroll?
Yeah, it's how I read all my studies.
Huh.
Well, it says here that the researchers worked with a 34-year-old, 7400-pound African elephant named Kelly at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia.
And it says here they videotaped her eating.
Oh, yeah.
They presented her with cubes of a vegetable called rutabaga in different sizes.
And it says here that when the cubes of rutabaga were small, she used her suction powers to inhale them through her trunk.
But when the cubes of rutabaga were larger, she would use her trunk's tiny opposable fingers to grab them.
Fingers?
Her trunk has fingers?
Well, yeah, kind of.
The two little finger-like things on the tip of her trunk are a special feature of African elephants.
Oh, I want face fingers on my nose.
And the study also goes on to say that when she was presented with a single flat, delicate tortilla chip just sitting on the table,
Kelly the elephant was able to use her suction power to lift and grab it without breaking it.
Pretty impressive for a 7,400-pound animal with a trunk that's nothing but muscle, huh?
I'll say.
And what's even more bonker balls is that these researchers found that she could suck or inhale almost 30 times faster than we humans can sneeze.
Excuse me.
Gesundheit, Dennis!
And store whatever she sucks up to save for later.
Oh, I see.
It's a storage trunk.
I thought it was like a trunk of a tree or something.
Uh-huh.
So Mindy, now that it's been discovered that elephants can use suction power to grab and inhale food and water, what do these researchers hope to do with this new discovery?
Well, pretty much the same thing I hope to do with this new discovery, Guy Raz.
Invent stuff.
Invent stuff?
You mean like your self-inflating birthday cake?
Yeah.
It's a field called soft robotics.
And a lot of these inventions are inspired by the animal kingdom.
You mean like the elephant trunk?
Yeah.
Elephant trunks, octopus tentacles, gecko feet.
Scientists take inspiration from these animals and then use it to build robots for the real world.
So, what's your invention, Mindy?
Guy Raz?
Dennis?
Yes?
I would like to present to you my latest invention inspired by the trunk of my old pal Evie here.
Ding, ding, ding!
Hold the Super Section Sniffer Storage Sprayer Snorkel 2000!
Wow!
Pretty bonker balls, huh?
It literally does everything.
It looks like a brightly colored elephant trunk with...
Tiny fingers and two long inner tubes that run the length of it.
Sort of like Evy's nasal passages there.
And, just like her trunk, you can drink out of it, breathe out of it, use it to hold your snacks and drinks spray water from it like a geyser, swing Dennis around and, of course, pick stuff up with its super suction power and look.
It even attaches right here onto your face.
Get it off me, Mindy.
Now this is what I call a snoop scoop.
I gotta call Norman Newman.
Uh, what?
Hello, Norman?
It's me, Dennis.
Remember Dennis, the spy witness?
Listen, I've got a scoop.
My friend Mindy invented a garden hose for your face and... What?
Oh, that.
That's just the elephant that escaped from the local zoo.
Dennis!
I told you you shouldn't have been keeping a zoo elephant at your house, Mindy.
Norman!
Who cares?
Let me tell you about this invention that... Yes, it's the same elephant.
My friend has been hiding her in her house all day.
Big deal.
That's not the news story here.
No, it isn't!
Norman!
Norman!
Sorry, Evie.
I guess it's time for you to go home to the zoo.
Care to take Dennis with you?
Evie, please!
I'm on the phone!
What was that, Norman?
No, the elephant is just carrying me around like a little doll.
It's no big deal.
Stuff like this happens every day.
I'm trying to tell you about something, Lauren. be right back grown-ups this message is for you hey grown-ups it's mindy and guy ross here from wow in the world mindy and i have some brand new wow in the world toys out in the world just in time for the holidays made for the kids who love science and for the ones who don't yet from our 100 experiments that wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit Our Wow in the World toys help your wowzer learn about their world through play.
Plus, you can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Give the gift of wow and wonder this holiday season with our latest Wow in the World toys designed with your curious wowzer in mind.
You can shop our Wow in the World toys at Tinkercast.com slash toys.
That's Tinkercast.com slash toys.
My name is Theodore, and I live in San Francisco, California.
And my wow is that beluga whales are the only whales that can turn their heads.
Hi to Mindy and Guy Raz and Reggie.
Bye.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Raz.
My name is Elias, and I live in San Francisco, California.
My wow is that honeybees have five eyes, two on the side of their head and three above.
Say hi to Reggie and Grandma G for sharing.
Say what?
Bye.
I'm Indian Guy Roz.
My name is Uma, and I live in Ojai, California.
My wow in the world is that there are 100 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
Love your show.
Say hi to Dennis.
Hi.
Reggie.
Grandma G-Force.
Say what?
And Thomas Fingerling.
Bye.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Raz.
My name's Sahara.
I'm from New Jersey, and I'm six years old.
My law in the world is that ants have two stomachs one for themselves and one for sharing with other ants.
Bye. years old, and I live in California.
My wow in the world is that the northern lights were made from the sun.
Say hi to everyone for me.
Hi, my name is Connor.
I'm from New Hope, Pennsylvania.
My wow in the world is that, at 40 feet and 10 tons, Sarcosuchus is the world's largest crocodile that ever existed.
It lived 100 million years ago during the mid-Cretaceous period in northern Africa.
Hi, I'm Nathan.
I live at Houston, Texas.
Okay, my wow in the world is that caracoles can jump 10 feet in the air.
Caracoles are big My name is Ian.
I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hi.
My name is Ray.
I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
And our wow in the world is that coconuts which are very, very heavy can float for 110 days and 3000 miles.
Nuts.
Say hi to Reggie, Dennis, Grandma D-Force, Thomas Dangling, and everybody else I can think of.
Oh, nice.
Ahoy there.
I'm the fairest one of all.
End of messages.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with help from me, Guy Raz.
Our senior producer, Jed Anderson, brings our show to life with sound design and music editing and is also in charge of wrangling Dennis.
Fingerling, Reggie, and many of the other silly characters you hear.
Jessica Bode keeps our facts straight as our fact checker and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the wow at Tinkercast.
Our theme song was composed and performed by three-time Grammy nominees, The Pop-Ups.
Find them at thepopups.com.
Special thanks to the rest of our team of tinkerers, including Anna Zagorski, Rebecca Caban, Kit Ballinger, Henry Moskal and Tyler Tholl.
To keep the wows rolling, visit us at Tinkercast.com.
There you can learn more about becoming an official member of the World Organization of Wowsers.
Learn more about upcoming events.
Shop our shop and pick up a copy of our new number one New York Times bestselling book, The How and Wow of the Human Body.
Grownups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Wow in the World.
And our email address is hello at tinkercast.com.
And if you're a kid with a big wow to share with us, call us at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of our show or an upcoming episode of Two What's and a Wow.
Thanks again for listening.
And until next time, keep on wowing.
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